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Hydrofoil! The Foilcat "Kangalope", a Hobie 18 fitted with surface-piercing foils, hasbeen tested extensively in Florida since late 1997. It has been sailed onthe foils 50 different days, in North Florida, off the beach at Daytona, atFt. Lauderdale and Miami, even at Rick's Place in the Keys. The Foilcat"Jackalope", built on a Hobie 16, was first in the water at the MiamiBoatshow in February 1999, and has been out foiling ever since.This foiling was great fun, as can be seen from the photos at Lake Santa Fein North Florida, but it was also directed at improvement of speed andbehavior of the rig. We are currently working on modifying the major aluminum lifting foilshape, to replace the Clark-Y flat bottomed lifting foilcurrently in use. We anticipate that this may lead to a commercial productwith better behavior. What is sailing a Foilcat like?-- Getting a thoroughbred racehorsegalloping at its top speed- a tall horse way off the ground going way toofast! Normal beach cats are fast too- but now they feel more likesmall, short-legged ponies! These Foilcats need 11 knots to climb up out ofthe water and fly BOTH hulls. They need wind of sustained 13 knots to foilcontinuously. Technically, the realistic goal is something like 1.5 timeswindspeed for this and all other foiling boats. In a breeze, it surely felt like 28+ knots (31+ miles per hour) to me, based on many years of water skiing! Cheetalope is an A-Class wooden Catnip design built by Cal Fuller about 1988. She weighs 200 pounds and sails beautifully off the foils. I have added a surface-piercing foil set that rotates easily down into foiling position, and is fastened to aluminum tubing that inserts into the crossbar. Little modification to the boat in needed. I'm using the same modified stock fiberglass Hobie rudders with the single fin as on Kangalope and Jackalope. The much lighter weight allows the rig to come out of the water and have sustained flights lasting several minutes. The aluminum surface-piercing foil assembly weighs fifteen pounds each side.
And now for some pictures.. Click to enlarge.. photos taken during recent development/testing of the hydrofoils
Visit the Hobie Fleet 153 Homepage, featuring some more photos of the foilboats. look here for more info on foiling in general
Footnote: Catcobbler "Catcobbler" is the business name I used in the 1980's when making the first commercial Quick Fit Rudder Cam Pins for Hobie 16s. The name at least still lives: Perhaps it will live again soon as a source for Foilcat Kits! Dave
Carlson
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